While there are several guides on general procedures for medics and what their equipment does, I haven't been able to find any that specifically detail what equipment they should take. Now keep in mind, these are just my personal preferences and there's a lot of room to customize them to your own liking. This guide also takes into account that you want to leave enough supplies for your other squad medic to take a similar loadout. The loadout I describe below isn't the quickest way to prepare for the mission. You'll probably take the longest out of your squad to prep even after you get used to the process. It's simply designed to make the process of actually treating marines as fast and efficient as possible.
Besides the basic marine gear, you'll want to equip a medical backpack or satchel, a lifesaver bag in your belt slot, a medical HUD, a hypospray in one of your armor slots, a medical analyzer in one of your pockets, and optionally, a tramadol pill bottle in the other pocket (I'll explain this later). Any extra spaces are left for you to fill as you see fit.
Backpack
-Two stasis bags- Try to only use these if you're dealing with lung punctures or are actively being chased by half the entire hive. They'll cause more harm than good if you could have treated the patient yourself.
-Defibrillator- This one is optional. If you understand how to use it properly, it's good to have along. There's a defibrillator guide in the forums if you don't know how to use one.
-Regular medkit- Empty this medkit of all its contents besides the syringe case and toss them in your locker. Fill it with two dexalin plus injectors, one quick clot, and a syringe case filled with a dylovene bottle, inaprovaline bottle, and spaceacillin bottle. You can put anything you prefer in the remaining space.
-Advanced medkit- Take out the tricordrazine injector and replace it with a quick clot. It's really handy to have one in the same case as your trauma and burn kits when you're in a hurry.
How you fill the remaining space in your backpack is up to you.
Lifesaver Bag
The lifesaver bag should have everything you need. Supplies in your medkits are there to refill your belt. Digging through a medkit in the middle of a battle wastes time and could result in you dropping supplies when you get tackled/hugged/shot in the face. The first thing I recommend you do is dump out every bruise pack, ointment, and injector besides quick clot, dexalin plus, and oxycodone. Most of this stuff is handy to have, but will result in you running out of supplies very quickly. Now on to what you should put in the belt:
-A quick clot and dexalin plus- You should already have a few of these that came with the belt. Adding these extras is usually a good idea though.
-A dylovene bottle, inaprovaline bottle, and spaceacillin bottle-
-Syringe- Bottles wouldn't help you very much without this. Remember, you can use it to combine dylovene and inaprovaline to make tricordrazine. You can inject this directly into a patient or use it to refill your hypospray. You have an extra in the first syringe case in your regular medkit.
-An inaprovaline pill bottle, kelotane pill bottle, dylovene pill bottle, and tramadol pill bottle- Slower acting than using the syringe, but with much larger doses.
-Burn and trauma kits- You already have one of each in the belt, but extras never hurt. Since there are three advanced medkits in each vendor, take a single burn and trauma kit from the extra advanced medkit.
Additional Information
Now I'll explain why you have two tramadol pill bottles. The one in your lifesaver bag is simply for refills. The one in your pocket is for more pill types than just tramadol. Take out six of the fourteen pills. You can drop these in your locker or fill one of the other half full pill bottles with them. Put in two kelotane pills, two dylovene pills, and two inaprovaline pills (Russian reds are also an option). Remember that the dylovene and inaprovaline pills create 50 units of tricordrazine when both ingested. Due to a recent update, tricordrazine and dylovene both cause overdoses at 30 units. Tricordrazine causes brain damage when overdosed and dylovene causes eye damage. Because of this, the dylovene and inaprovaline pill mix should only be used in extreme emergencies.
Now you have easy reach to every type of pill you need. Between your pill bottle and belt, you only need one free hand to access every type of medicine available to you. Remember to refill your tramadol bottle and lifesaver bag whenever you have some time to kill.
One thing I'd like to stress here is that you are NOT a doctor. You don't perform surgery. If you are unable to stabilize a patient and they are likely going to die very quickly (aka lung punctures without enough dexalin and dexalin plus), toss them in a stasis bag and ensure they get to medbay as soon as possible.
As mentioned before, this guide is fairly complex and VERY time consuming. By the time you finish loading up, the RO line is likely going to be stretched out to the cafeteria and most of the attachments will be gone. The thing to remember is, if your playing as a medic, your primary role is to keep other marines alive. If you run into the middle of a pack of aliens and get killed, it's likely the rest of your squad is going to suffer heavy losses. We may not be the most robust marines on the server, but we certainly ensure the others live long enough to tell us they are.
Just to try to simplify the clutter, here's a complete list of everything you need to do:
- Remove the following items from their containers:
=Lifesaver bag=
-All ointment
-All bruise packs
-All auto injectors besides quick clot, dexalin plus, and oxycodone
=Regular medkit=
-Everything besides the syringe case
=Advanced medkit=
-Tricordrazine injector
Add the following items:
=Medical backpack/satchel=
-Two stasis bags
-Defibrillator
-Regular medkit (detailed below)
-Advanced medkit (detailed below)
=Lifesaver bag=
-Quick clot
-Dexalin plus injector
-Dylovene bottle
-Inaprovaline bottle
-Spaceacillin bottle
-Syringe
-Inaprovaline pill bottle
-Kelotane pill bottle
-Dylovene pill bottle
-Tramadol pill bottle
-Burn kit
-Trauma kit
=Regular medkit=
-Two dexalin plus injectors
-Quick clot
-Syringe case with one dylovene, inaprovaline, and spaceacillin bottle
=Advanced medkit=
-Quick clot
=Pockets=
Medical analyzer
Tramadol pill bottle (two of each type of pill added)
=Other Supplies=
Medical HUD
Hypospray (in armor slot)
Misc. Tips
I recently decided throwing in a few pointers for new medics wouldn't hurt.
=Stasis Bags and Lung Damage=
The misuse of stasis bags is always a danger for new medics. As stated before, stasis bags are for extreme emergencies only. The only time you ever have an excuse to use one on a critical patient without trying to patch them up first is when you need to grab them and run. Tossing someone in and dragging them away from the seven or eight aliens closing in on you is perfectly acceptable.
The only other time you should ever even consider using one is for lung damage, and even then, only rarely. Suffocation damage needs a brief explanation before I continue. There are several ways to take suffocation damage, it's not just direct damage to the lungs. Blood levels below 90% will cause increasing levels of damage as the level drops, damage to the heart will cause a small amount of permanent suffocation damage, and damage to the lungs will cause increasing levels of suffocation damage over time and depending on the level of injury.
Low blood levels aren't usually a danger if they're around 80% and no other damage is present. If you absolutely need to remove some of the damage caused by low blood levels, you can transfuse blood with a syringe provided you have the proper blood type. NEVER try this unless you are absolutely certain you have the correct blood type for the patient. Incompatible blood will most likely kill your patient.
Damage to the heart takes a few seconds to identify without the advanced scanners in medbay, but it's fairly simple to do. If the suffocation damage is not from low blood levels, the patient doesn't have broken ribs, and the level of damage isn't increasing or decreasing, it's likely heart damage. This type of injury is annoying, but is not life threatening on its own. Only peridaxon or surgery will fix it, so don't waste your meds.
Lung damage is usually very obvious. If the patient is gasping every couple seconds and there's plenty of air in the room, nine times out of ten they have a punctured lung. If they have broken ribs and they're walking/being dragged around, they will eventually die of lung damage. The important thing when confronted with this situation is to remain calm and think it through. Suffocation damage from a broken lung will often slow down at certain levels of damage. Administer inaprovaline and keep them on a roller bed. Move them to the shuttle and apply extra inaprovaline and occasional dexalin plus injections as needed (dexalin plus at around 100 suffocation damage or below if higher levels of other damage types are present as well) and stay next to them until the shuttle leaves. Ensure you inform medbay over the medsci channel that a patient with lung damage is coming up on the shuttle (Using :m if you installed the encryption key from the vendor in medic prep). Also, you need to be absolutely CERTAIN that the patient will survive the next three to five minutes on their own. Otherwise, it may be best to ride up with them and ensure they get taken to medbay. Stasis bags should only be used if suffocation levels are immediately jumping to critical levels directly after the dexalin plus was administered. Tossing someone in a stasis bag will result in steady brain damage over time. This means a patient who's spent a long time in one will likely not even be able to stand or see in extreme cases.
=Skull Fractures=
Bone fractures in the head will cause a patient brain damage when they move or are dragged. Toss them on a roller bed and get them to the shuttle. If they insist they're fine and want to go back to the fight, calmly inform them they'll be laying on the ground dying within several minutes. If they still refuse, there's really nothing you can do. Some people simply enjoy being a "hero" and causing three other people to die while trying to drag their unconscious body away from xenos. Again, rib fractures cause lung damage and will result in the patient dying even faster than skull fractures.
=Awareness of Other Medics=
It's important to remember that medics play their role because they enjoy patching up other players (usually). If the round has been relatively slow, you can be certain that every single medic in the immediate area will charge towards the first marine to get a paper cut. This obviously causes a problem when three or more people are trying to give one person tramadol, Russian red, etc. Sometimes it's best just to watch the other medic and only step in if absolutely necessary.
Most medics follow a pattern when administering medication that's important to keep in mind. Depending on the situation, the pattern is usually internal bleeding, external bleeding, other external brute wounds, burn wounds, setting bones, and finally painkillers. Now let's think how we can use this pattern. Here's an example situation: a patient with a broken arm, internal bleeding, brute trauma to the arm, and an equal amount of burn damage to the arm. You're the second medic on the scene, so what do you do? Following the pattern above, it's likely the other medic will stop the internal bleeding, patch up the external brute damage and bleeding, patch up the burn damage, set the bone, and administer painkillers in that order. If the damage is not immediately life threatening, it's often best to work backwards. Administer painkillers so they're obvious in the bloodstream by the time the other medic reaches that point, set the bone, and treat the burn damage. By then, the other medic should be finished with the rest.
The reason I list burn damage after brute damage is that most severe brute damage is treated at the same time bleeding damage is. Additionally, brute damage shows up in red and appears on the leftmost side of the limb damage indicator. It stands out much more than burn damage and will usually be treated first. This pattern is the most common, but it will change depending on the damage levels. If burn damage is far higher than brute damage, burn damage will come first. The same works with suffocation and toxin damage. Usually, the first thing you want to treat will be what the other medic is already taking care of. In cases of extreme damage, work from the bottom of the limb damage display upwards. The other medic is likely working down the list.
The biggest danger posed by multiple medics is overdoses. Keep an eye on the chat log to see what the other medic is administering. If you see them giving the patient the same pill you just gave them and you know it will cause an overdose, it's usually best to move the patient one tile away and quickly explain the situation to the other medic. They WILL be angry at you for dragging their patient away, but it's better than a massive overdose.
Most importantly, the other medics are NOT your enemies. Sure, it means you'll have fewer people to treat, but it's best to let the other medics handle the situation if they seem to have it under control. Keep an eye on the health bar and chat log from a distance and only step in if they obviously can't handle the situation or there is a severe amount of damage.
Other Guides
So, you've been a medic for quite a while now. You know the tricks of the trade and think you're ready to try being a doctor for a change. Perhaps you think it'll be a nice break from the constant stress of being a medic. Well you'd be wrong. You'll have to contend with the most terrifying enemy of all: marines with round delaying injuries. As one of very few doctors per round, you'll be expected to know your stuff. If you've never played a medic, I'd recommend you play one at least a couple weeks before you try the jump to doctor. And please, never even think of being the CMO unless you've had a decent amount of experience as a doctor. They're expected to know the ins and outs of the job. Anyway, here are a few links you'll find useful if you decide to take on these roles:
Firstly, we have a wiki for surgery and chemistry, always keep this up in the background. Even the most experienced doctor forgets things occasionally - wiki/Main_Page
Chemistry guides don't get much more detailed than this - viewtopic.php?f=94&t=5689
More chemistry - viewtopic.php?f=94&t=2837&hilit=cmo
Even more chemistry - viewtopic.php?f=94&t=6816
This one isn't chemistry - viewtopic.php?f=94&t=6282
And finally, the guide I read before my first round as a medic. It's been a while since it was last edited so some of the overdose levels are off, but it's definitely worth a read - viewtopic.php?f=94&t=638
What? You don't think this loadout is your style? Well I guess it can't be helped, try this instead - viewtopic.php?f=94&t=7285
Want to talk to the other poor souls who feel your pain as a medic? Well here you go - viewtopic.php?p=83628#p83628
(Shamelessly linking a thread that links to this thread. Now you can read this thread while you read this thread)
